Midday stock movers: Kroger, Alaska Air, Moderna

The stock market is trading higher in the afternoon after a slight decline in the morning.

The S&P 500 increased by 0.9%, and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite climbed almost 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average saw a 0.5% gain, while the Russell 2000 Index grew by 1.2%.

Trending stocks:

All Magnificent 7 stocks are up midday. Nvidia added 2.7% and is now trading at more than $120 per share again.

In the semiconductor sector, Broadcom and AMD rose 4.3% and 0.5%, respectively, while Micron lost 3%.

Kroger CEO said shoppers are more cautious with their spending.
Bloomberg/Getty Images

S&P 500 big stock movers today

Five S&P 500 stocks making big midday moves are:

Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) +7.1%
Kroger (KR) +6.0%
Axon Enterprise (AAXN) +5.1%
Newmont (NEM) +4.6%
Broadcom (AVGO) +4.3%

The worst-performing five S&P 500 stocks with the largest midday drop are:

Moderna (MRNA) -12.9%
Micron Technology (MU) -3.8%
Charles Schwab (SCHW) -3.4%
Enphase Energy (ENPH) -3.2%
Texas Instruments (TXN) -2.7%

Stocks also worth noting include:

Alaska Air Group (ALK) +1.7%
Nvidia (NVDA) +2.6%
Meta Platforms (META) +2.3%
Micron (MU) -3.4%
Nio (NIO) -7.7%

Alaska Air ticks higher after lifting outlook

Alaska Air Group, which owns Alaska Airlines, rose 1.7% after the company raised its third-quarter outlook. The share initially surged 5% in premarket trading before paring its gains.

The airline updated its earnings per share forecast to between $2.15 and $2.25, an increase from the previous range of $1.40 to $1.60.

Last week, peer JetBlue raised its third-quarter revenue forecast, citing a benefit from rebookings caused by a cyberoutage from CrowdStrike’s software update.

Kroger gains after Q2 results

Kroger shares added 6% midday and were one of the top five S&P 500 winners after the company’s fiscal-second-quarter earnings beat the consensus estimate.

For the quarter ended Aug. 17 the supermarket chain earned 93 cents a share, topping analysts’ projection of 91 cents. However, revenue of $33.91 billion fell short of Wall Street’s $34.08 billion forecast.

The company also lifted the lower end of its full-year comparable-sales guidance, excluding fuel, to a range of 0.75% to 1.75%. It maintained its fiscal 2025 earnings forecast at $4.30 to $4.50 per share.

"Conscious customers are buying more at the beginning of the month to stock up on essential items in groceries. And then as the month progresses, they are more cautious with their spending," Kroger’s chief executive, Rodney McMullen, said during an earnings call.

Moderna falls on expense reduction plan

Moderna shed 13% after the drugmaker announced plans to cut R&D expenses by $1.1 billion by 2027. The estimate is now $3.6 billion to $3.8 billion in 2027 from the expected $4.8 billion in 2024.

Moderna also plans to break even on an operating cash cost basis with $6 billion in revenue, which the company expects to achieve in 2028.

More Retail Stocks:

The company now forecasts 2025 revenue between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion, with cost of sales projected to be 35% to 45% of that amount.

Moderna also said it expects to launch 10 new products through 2027.

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